Here's another tidbit. I got my copy of Army Times today. There's an article in it about security at the Superdome. Members of a Louisiana Army National Guard MP unit were on duty there, but WERE NOT ISSUED FIREARMS UNTIL 72 HOURS AFTER THE HURRICANE MADE LANDFALL. One soldier fashioned a homemade baton out of a broomstick.
Who is in charge of the Louisiana National Guard? Here's a clue. Her name is Blanco.
STOP THE PRESSES!!!
Here's another amazing piece of fact about Governor Blanco's dereliction of duty:
All along I have been wondering why Gov. Blanco couldn't have, under a state of emergency, ordered school buses (and for that matter all kinds of other buses) from all over the state of LA to carry out the evacuation of NOLA on the Sat. and Sun. before the storm. Since no one in the media ever mentioned such a possibility (that I had seen) I figured there must not be any legal way to do this.
Here's the kicker: on Wednesday, August 31 it seems that Governor Blanco issued just such an order and cited the relevant statute:
http://www.nationalreview.com/pdf/EmergencyEvacuationbyBuses.pdf
National Review has posted this document on their website, but it's a good idea if various freepers save a copy of it in case NR changes the link and the Governor decides to make it disappear. Soooo, evidently the Governor DID have the legal authority to order any number of buses from around the state to converge on NOLA before the storm, but didn't get around to issuing such an order until WEDNESDAY after the crisis was already so extreme.
This is another point to hammer home will all the the media, the Governor is the one who was asleep at the switch and waited FIVE DAYS to do what should have been ordered on Saturday before the storm.